Dance Re:Ignite 2.0
July 3, 2024
Jenni Pinnock
September 16, 2024ARCHIVE: TAG
(January to December 2020)
OVERVIEW
#TAG was an intergenerational dance programme taking place in three Hertfordshire Boroughs and Districts: Dacorum, Three Rivers, and Watford. It was a featured contribution by those Districts/Boroughs to Hertfordshire Year of Culture 2020 (HYOC). It explored ‘play’, gathering related stories across generations and cultures, exploring and presenting them through dance with the local communities in public spaces. Initially it aimed to experiment with digital resources as a tool to provide legacy. It was hoped that this work would enable the creation of a shared strategy for dance across the districts that has future potential to roll out across the county.
Covid-19
During the early stages of the project the country was placed in lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This meant severe disruption to planned activity as people were required to stay at home, businesses closed, and Local Authorities had to focus attention on responding to the pandemic. This resulted in the planned activity for this project to be reworked and/or delayed. Much of the activity was adapted to move online.
AIMS
BEEE Creative’s mission is to connect people to opportunities and challenge barriers to access to dance. #TAG aimed to support this mission by promoting a sense of belonging through dance and storytelling. In line with HYOC’s objectives #TAG aimed to enable access and participation to new audiences and foster new partnerships and ways of working for the future. It aimed to celebrate creativity in the community and home. It was hoped #TAG would be the catalyst for the creation of a shared dance strategy for the three participating Districts/Boroughs.
HEADLINE FINDINGS
- The project had to make significant adaptations to all of its strands of delivery in response to the social restrictions imposed due to Covid-19. In practice this entailed moving most of the planned delivery online, including workshops and the final celebration event. Despite this most of the project’s outcomes were achieved.
- The project adaptations enabled BEEE Creative and partners to explore new ways of working that will inform future project planning and delivery. This includes better understanding who accesses online activities and how they prefer to engage. It has also enabled further exploration of where this removes and presents barriers to participation.
- The project did not achieve its anticipated reach to new audiences, due to the restrictions imposed by Covid-19. However, it did exceed its original anticipated reach numbers, and engage with participants who have deepened and strengthened their relationship to BEEE Creative. Conversely, it did reach some new participants who were unlikely to have taken part had it not been for the restrictions of Covid-19.
- Factors for successful partnership working between the three Local Authority partners were identified, which can be factored into planning for future projects
- The project did support BEEE Creative’s aim to develop dance infrastructure in Hertfordshire, through its successful mentoring programme and training webinar series. The Local Authority partners were also able to identify their next steps to develop dance in their localities.
EVALUATION
A full evaluation report is available for this project >>
PROJECT CREDITS
Partners:
- Dacorum Borough Council
- Three Rivers Borough Council
- Watford Borough Council
- University of Hertfordshire, School of Humanities Hertfordshire County Dance Teachers Association
FILM
OTHER PROJECT OUTPUTS
- Play: https://vimeo.com/458942050
- #TAG finale: https://vimeo.com/490661158
- Oral Histories: https://www.herts.ac.uk/heritage-hub/oralhistoryarchive/beee-creative
- Seek and Hide community film: https://vimeo.com/476598443
